Tourism sector could be developed as one of the most vibrant ones to beef up Sri Lankan economy and to generate a sizable employment for its people. Currently it doesn’t perform up to its full potential and Sri Lanka attracts 400 thousand something tourists per year. Countries like Singapore and Thailand which didn’t have much to offer to lure tourists at the early stages of their tourism sector can now boost of attracting more than 10 folds of what we get. The bloody separatist war which nearly lasted 03 decades was partially responsible for the pathetic conditions of our tourism sector. People of ‘Greener Pastures’ from where lot many of them do frequent here in numbers were afraid to come as there were heaps of travel adversaries issued by their respective governments. Now the bloody war is over and one of most promising industry to raise its head first in post war Sri Lanka is tourism. Government and the agencies connected to tourism plans to attract 1.6 foreigners per year in the next few years time. Whether this tempting figure is pragmatic given the constraints in the tourism infrastructure is a major concern. It is widely believed that Sri Lanka doesn’t have room capacity even to attract half of what is planned.
On different occasions, tourism promotional planners placed different taglines on Sri Lanka to lure foreigners to come here and spend their Euros and Dollars. For many years, Sri Lanka was ’Land like no other’. The most recent tag line was ‘small miracle’, but some body thought otherwise and wanted to change it to ‘big miracle’. A tussle in this connection drags on. Tourism board has invited suggestions from the general public to design a more appropriate tag line to promote SL tourism among would be global travelers. A one thing naturally came to my mind is ‘paradise regained’ but never bothered to put it across to tourism board.
Two‘S’ are god given things on which we attempt to lure travelers in numbers. Those are ‘sun and sea’. But, the thousand dollar question is whether we will be able to entice a sizeable chunk of global travelers merely by offering them sun and sea, just because those are somewhat rare commodities for certain people live in Europe and North Americas.
Recently, I happened to be engrossed in a deep conversation with a Chinese friend of mine who practice traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) in Colombo. According to him, Sri Lanka has many beautiful beaches than Taiwan but all of our beaches are dirty and full of litter whilst a completely different picture emerges from Taiwan. That is one reason why Taiwan has been able to attract many more tourists than us despite being undersupplied in natural beauty especially with regard to pristine beaches. My Chinese friend says that unless the people make a genuine and a disciplined attempt, our beaches despite being sandy or pristine will remain in this rather Pathetic Condition . I will never hesitate to give a life time guarantee to for his words as I have seen and enjoyed some of the well kept beaches in his part of the world.
As a practice, to keep myself fit and healthy, I do a regular jog alone the Gall Face walkway. There are many people that include certain ‘movers and shakers’ in Sri Lankan politics doing the same routine on very regular basis at this very location. Among regular walkers in the Gall Face walkway are ones with authority and power who certainly can ‘get things going’ As Galle Face area is home to almost all the five or whatever big star hotels in the capital city, foreigners Staying in those hotels very often stroll in the Gall Face beach front. And not only me but all of whom I mentioned is privileged to see the pathetic condition of Gall Face beach that is full of litter and garbage. Thousands of locals who flock to Galle Face in the afternoons cannot escape seeing this garbage bumping site. To put things in correct perspective, those are the very people who are to be faulted in bringing the Gall Face beach front to such a horrible condition.
It was during one of my regular joggings that an idea flashed to my mind to do some thing about this within my capacity. I talked with couple of my friends in the Navy where I work to do ‘something’ to remove the litter from Galle Face beach front. This was not an easy task as the beach front extends about 1.5 km’s from Galle Face hotel to Chaitiya road. A bunch of naval personnel from Provost, Electrical and Welfare department volunteered to do the job when they were apprised of the situation. Provost department of the navy where I currently work agreed to shoulder the major chunk of burden. We planned to commence the shramadana campaign after 4.45 pm so as not to interfere with the official duties of the navy.
I decided to involve my 02 daughters also for this Shrmadana campaign as they should be groomed to be dutiful citizens of the country one day. We, the like minted volunteers from the navy including my 02 daughters (Aged 13 and 07) started the clearing work at 4.45 pm. There were above 40 men and women in our group. By 6.15 pm the whole of Galle Face beach front has been cleared of all litter and garbage. On completion of the task, the beach looked pristine as if a golden colour carpet has been laid.
When I looked back about this whole episode, I was proved wrong about one thing. Before the work is done, I expected that there will be many people to assist us when we get on with our community work at Galle Face. This is election time and we get to hear about so many patriots in this country who has come forward to help regain the lost paradise. None of them were to be seen at Galle Face last Friday afternoon. May be all of them were busy elsewhere preaching their sermons in election campaigns. The pity is that, out of may be several hundred people walking and enjoying in the beach, not a single soul did bother even to pick a plastic bottle and put it in to the garbage collecting bags each of us carried including my younger daughter whose height is not still enough to match the length of the polysack bag she carried. Simply, this land is a ‘land like no other’; it occurred to my mind. Our tourism promoters must embrace the ‘Big Miracle’ tag line rather than ‘small’.
I was not discouraged, but a sense of disappointment surged through my whole body. A feeling that is not clearly explainable occurred to me. Not to be undone so easily, I am now more determined to continue this venture in future with more like minded volunteers who have a real concern for our motherland. I am sure we will succeed one day and will be able to change the mindset of our people. This surely is going to be a slow but a sure process. If this process can be expedited with the participation of all people, the dream of luring 1.6 million travelers will not remain a dream that hasn’t come true.
